Sticky Date Pudding With Brown Sugar Butterscotch Sauce
By: Antony Perring
Published: Sunday, September 12, 2010 - 2:52pm

Ingredients




The dates
3/4 cup pitted dates
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup boiling water
The pudding
40 grams softened butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup self raising flour
1/4 cup plain flour
Butterscotch sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup cream
60 grams butter

Preparation

1 Grease and line an 8 x 1/3 cup muffin tin. 2 In a small bowl combine the chopped dates, bicarbonate of soda and boiling water. Stir and set aside for 10 minutes while you prepare the remaining ingredients. 3 Combine 4 grams butter and 1/2 cup brown sugar in a mixing bowl.  Beat until the butter is light and fluffy and the sugar is completely dissolved. 4 Add the egg and mix very well to combine. 5 Sift the flours into the butter and egg mixture, add the now softened dates and stir until just mixed through. 6 Spoon the mixture into muffin tin and bake for 20 minutes. 7 Allow to cool until they are able to be handled, remove from the muffin tin and set aside to serve. 8 For the sauce 9 Over moderate heat add the sugar and brown sugar to the pan and set aside to melt. Do not stir the sugar, be patient and let it melt in the pan forming a light caramel. 10 Remove from the heat when the sugar has darkened a little. 11 Quickly stir in the cream and the butter and set aside to cool just a little and serve over the puddings with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

About


This is one of my recipes from www.clunki.com - the online resource for soft foods and modified diets.
Just about everyone has a story of confused waiters or waitresses, and misunderstandings in cafes and restaurants.
One I was reminded of just the other day when I dug out this recipe was the slightly fuddled backpaker (let’s call him Johan for convenience sake) at a cafe in Sydney’s Newtown.  Johan couldn’t quite explain the difference between the self-saucing pudding and the one you’d have to sauce for yourself.
The poor love was quite rightly confused firstly by a chef who’d given us customers a self-saucing sticky date pudding as a special that night; secondly by working in a busy cafe with English quite obviously as a second language for him.
He was further bewildered by our table of twelve ordering de-caf, skim and soy variations of every coffee type available.
The difference was of course the self-saucing sticky date pudding came in a little pot that had a thick sweet sauce under the layer of spongy pudding.
The pudding you were to sauce yourself was a slice from a larger pud, served with a jug of butterscotch syrup.
Let’s be honest, Johan’s tenuous grip on English grammar left him with little hope.
I hadn’t really thought about sticky date puddings, or Johan for that matter for a long time until my Aunt produced perfect individually portioned treats as an alternative to a traditional Christmas pudding last Christmas.
It was a brilliant idea.  Less dense and much tastier than any fruit pudding and in individual serves with lashings of butterscotch sauce.
Give these a try. You’ll be glad you did – just remember you’ll have to add the sauce yourself.